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Comment by daemin | Hacker News Reader

The maximum temperature will be an issue here in Australia. In a typical place where it will be mounted, i.e. the garage, the temperatures will readily get over 40, close to 50 during summer.

I could see this also being a problem in places like Nevada and Arizona in the USA.

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110°F is going to be a problem even in SoCal potentially.

Though, I guess you could somewhat justify using solar power for cooling the battery when the temperature gets excessive. Presumably you'd be getting peak power at the same time you get peak temps.

-4F is definitely not that low, but at the same time when the house is heated, garage is going to get some of that heat as well.

Store it underground.

In Canada, the temperatures dip well below -20C regularly, but not 10 feet underground they don't.

It takes months of sub-zero above-ground temperatures to even break the freezing mark and crack pipes that are 6 feet underground.

I think the minimum temperature will actually be a larger problem for the U.S. There's a lot of states where it easily gets colder than -4 F throughout winter, but the max will be a problem too.

If your garage is getting to 50°C you've got a major insulation problem! Where are you located?

In both cases if min and max operating temperature are an issue it may be best to install in an FIP enclosure and use ducting to keep the enclosure and an optimal temperature.

In many houses, the garage is outside of the insulation; the garage itself has very little insulation between itself and the outdoors, and there's lots of insulation between the garage and the "habitable" parts of the house.

My garage door faces the southwest meaning it gets hit by the sun for a good chunk of the day. It easily gets to 120F during a Houston summer in there.

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